Schumacher beats Brazil - and the saboteurs; Coulthard disqualified

Michael Schumacher took another firm step forward in his quest for the 2000 World Formula One championship when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix yesterday, while rival and reigning champion Mika Hakkinen once more failed to finish.

Schumacher beats Brazil - and the saboteurs; Coulthard disqualified

26 March 2000Bob Jennings and Jeff Hutchinson

Michael Schumacher took another firm step forward in his quest for the 2000 World Formula One championship when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix yesterday, while rival and reigning champion Mika Hakkinen once more failed to finish.

And, in a post-race surprise, second-placed David Coulthard was disqualified from the results after his McLaren-Mercedes was found to be illegal due to a 2mm front wing infringement. McLaren has appealled the decision, saying the infringement was caused by "the heavy amount of bottoming and vibration induced by the nature of the Sao Paulo circuit".

It was Schumacher's second consecutive victory, having also driven his Ferrari to victory in the Australian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, and it gives him 20 title points, 14 clear of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello - who failed to finish in his home GP - and David Coulthard, who was second.

Schumacher used a risky, two-stop race strategy, allowing him to carry a lighter fuel load early.

He made a good start from third place on the starting grid to be second away from the line, and then he blasted past pole winner Mika Hakkinen to lead the race at the start of the second lap.

Local hero Rubens Barrichello took third place from the second McLaren of David Coulthard in similar fashion just behind the leading pair, but it took him 13 more laps to find a way past Hakkinen's McLaren, placing the Ferraris first and second on lap 15.

The record crowd went wild as Barrichello took the lead for two laps when Schumacher made his first pitstop on lap 20, but Barrichello's hopes of a home victory faded for good soon after when his car's hydraulic pressure system started to leak, leaving him with no means of changing gears or operating the throttle.

Schumacher's first stop had put him back to second place behind Hakkinen (pictured below), who was on a one-stop program, but his McLaren-Mercedes was immediately pulled out of the race with failing engine oil pressure.

This left Schumacher with a comfortable lead to the chequered flag, although Coulthard made up ground towards the end of the 71-lap race.

"It would have been very close had Mika not pulled out of the race," admitted Schumacher later, adding that he had a problem with his second set of tyres when one turned on the rim, as it did in Melbourne.

"I had a lot of vibration which made the car difficult to drive," he explained.

Schumacher's pace eased dramatically in the closing stages; like Hakkinen, Schumacher had been warned by his pit of a possible oil pressure problem with his engine.

Giancarlo Fisichella proved that a one-stop tactic could work by running 51 laps with his Benetton-Supertec before stopping for fuel, taking a strong third place for the team (before Coulthard's disqualification) which is to be taken over by Renault, while it was a similar story for Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who took fourth place just 2.5sec. behind the Benetton after a slow start.

His team-mate, Jarno Trulli ran a two-stop strategy which took him through the field from 12th to fifth at the finish, but 30sec. behind Frentzen.

He was the last driver to remain unlapped by Schumacher's Ferrari.

It was another good result for the Williams-BMW team, which brought both cars to the finish. Ralf Schumacher took the final point of the day, finishing sixth, 18sec. ahead of his rookie team-mate, Jenson Button, who was seventh, promoted to sixth to score his first world championship point.

The Arrows team, which had a disastrous outing in Adelaide, was impressive in Brazil with Jos Verstappen running as high as third before his pitstop, but the Dutchman was too exhausted to keep up the pace for the second half of the race and slipped back to eighth by the end, 14sec. ahead of his team-mate, Pedro de la Rosa.

Only 11 cars made it to the chequered flag, and once again both Jaguars joined the retirement list when Eddie Irvine crashed fighting for sixth place on lap 20 and Johnny Herbert stopped 20 laps from the flag with a gearbox failure.

With zero points to Schumacher's 20, Hakkinen is already facing a tough uphill struggle if he is to keep his title for the third year in succession.

Saturday's qualifying was a shambles when three Marlboro banners overhanging the circuit, over the main straight, came apart and fell onto the track surface.

A part of one of the banners hit Jean Alesi's Prost and Marlboro asked all potentially dangerous signs to be removed before race day.

The official line from the organisers was that wind had caused the nylon ties to break, but, race promoter Tamas Rohonyi subsequently claimed that the banners had been sabotaged. He said that the nylon ties had been cut in an attempt to discredit the Grand Prix and the city of Sao Paulo, following a mayoral dispute.

Rohonyi said that a dog which had been let loose in the circuit the previous day had been part of the same plot.

Both Saubers were withdrawn before the race after they had suffered wing failures in practice and qualifying on Saturday. The team had already had a similar failure during testing at Jerez.

Rumours abounded at Sao Paulo that FIA president Max Mosley may have asked all the Formula One teams to make their engine and gearbox electronic systems less complex, so that they can be more easily checked by the governing body.

Now it seems that it may become a mandatory requirement as early as the San Marino Grand Prix, the next race on the calendar after Brazil.